And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38
And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Mark 15:9-15
Jesus knew He was to be killed. Crucified. Killed by being fastened to a wooden bit of tree – a stake, perhaps, with added cross-piece to enable arms as well as legs to be attached. He came to give sinners eternal life, and they cried: “Put him to death. Impale him on a stake. Get rid of him! He’s no earthly good to us.” It was a crying shame! Jesus also wanted his follower to “take up his cross.” This essentially means to be crucified with Jesus!! Christ’s followers sometimes receive the Jesus treatment, no matter their good deeds. Note John 15:18-19.
The Greek word for cross is stauros - a “stake,” as in a fence stake. “Torture stake” in The New World Translation. “Crucify” is simply the verbal form of cross, as in “Crucify Him” in Mark 15:13. The New World Translation has, “To the stake with him,” because a stake was what Jesus and criminals were nailed to for “crucifixion.” Crucifixion just means being fastened to a cross or stake. For how Jesus was attached to the tree/stake/cross (tree because the stake was cut from a tree), see Acts 2:23; 5:30; 10:39; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24. Acts 2:23 says literally, “…you fastened to and killed.” Cross is implied but not actually included in the original text. Acts 5:30, literally, “… whom you slew and hanged on a tree.” Acts 10:39, “… you killed by hanging on a tree.” Galatians 3:13, “… cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” “Take up your cross” is really, “be crucified; be put on a torture stake.” The Greek isn’t “take up your burden”!
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ” again uses a form of the same word, stauros. When we commit to taking up our cross and following Jesus we are committing to being crucified with Christ – to dying with Christ, and to living for Him and others. Christ’s suffering and death on the cross also left us an example to emulate (especially His response to the mistreatment), since we have been crucified with Him. 1 Peter 2:21-25. Our life then is no longer our own, for Christ lives in us. We live the life Christ lived. We do the things Christ did. We cop the reviling and mocking Christ copped. We do not revile or threaten in response to vile treatment – in the same way Jesus did not revile or threaten. We have the faith Christ had. (Galatians 2:20, in Young’s Literal, has “And that which I now live in the flesh, in faith I live of the Son of God …”) We live with the love of Christ, the truth of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, the courage of Christ, the holiness of Christ, the will of Christ, the meekness of Christ, the Spirit of Christ. We live “in faith of the Son of God” totally.
Colossians 3:1-17 explains it clearly in behavioural detail: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
--David Carr